Silverscreen

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Callum Morton, Silverscreen 2010; the Marc and Eva Besen commission

Callum Morton’s monumental Silverscreen, set between two buildings on Dandenong road, provides a ceremonial entry to MUMA’s premises on Monash University’s Caulfield campus, while also projecting the identity of the museum into the wider urban landscape.

The 20-metre high galvanised steel sculpture takes its inspiration from architecture, billboard and scaffold, while drawing particularly on the form of the mid-20th century drive-in cinema screen. With 80 programmable LED lights, Silverscreen achieves a dynamic opticality and light play: of shadows by day, and illumination at night.

Silverscreen refers to a number of canonical sculptural, museum and architectural forms. These include two famously unbuilt projects -- Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International 1917 and Cedric Price's Fun Palace 1961 – along with a fully realised one that owes something to them both: Rogers and Piano's Pompidou Centre, built in Paris in the 1970s.

Callum Morton is one of Australia's most distinguished artists. He represented Australia at the Venice Biennale, 2007, and has participated in a wide range of prestigious exhibitions nationally and internationally. His recent architectural and public projects include Valhalla, Venice Biennale 2007 and Melbourne International Arts Festival 2009; Hotel, Eastlink Freeway 2008; and Grotto, Fundament Foundation, Netherlands, 2009.

A generous donation from Marc Besen AO and Eva Besen AO enabled the commissioning of Silverscreen.